Thursday, July 5, 2007

Politics

OK, I promised myself I wouldn't get too political in this blog, but this is kind of interesting--and peripherally related to music.

One of the topics of the TGIFriday's crew at Kaufman Kamp was how few people in the US actually vote. Beppe and Tony were both amazed at the low percentage of voter turnout. This week I'm working on a story on the band Nathan, and songwriter Keri Latimer had this to say about her politics (or lack thereof):

"I’m not very political at all. Or I can’t seem to follow politics, because they frustrate me and then my frustration leads me to just turn everything off and then I become stupid about it all. So I can’t talk politics with anybody. "Scarecrow" [which features the refrain 'I feel a podium under my feet] is my song about politicians, how I see them in general. Most politicians just like to be up on the platform, waving their arms around. It’s so strange, it’s accepted now that the parties will pander to what they think the majority of the people want instead of taking a stand on something and sticking to it. It’s all a matter of polls, and 'If everyone wants this, we’ll say we’re going to do that.' And everyone knows that they’re not really going to. So how can you even vote nowadays when you know that nobody really means what they say? It’s really strange that we all just go along with it. [In 'Scarecrow'] I was thinking of them like scarecrows and how they want you to believe that they’re guarding the fields, but they secretly want to be crows."

1 comment:

It takes time for change. Sometimes generations. Things keep changing; that's a given. If we want it to change to be better, we can't just close our eyes and plug our ears and bow out. We have to work together. If everyone who cared (or felt the way keri does) would get involved, things WOULD change. It's imperative that we find venues where we can contribute and stay active in the process. If we don't keep trying, we'll definitely lose.